Marsh:
I have a GREAT book that I would HIGHLY recommend..."The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce" by Dr. Judith Wallerstein. She conducted at 25 year longitudinal study of families who were happily married, high conflict but remained married, high conflict and divorced, and low conflict and divorced. She concludes that children are almost ALWAYS better off if parents remain married, except in cases of abuse, etc....but that's way too simplistic so please find out more for yourself. This book is fascinating, and very easy to read. Lots of anecdotal information mixed in and very well-written.

When I read it, I thought of the people I knew who were children of divorce and the common traits that she described are SO true.

Big recommendation! I googled her name as well, and it looks like there's a lot of stuff that you can find just by looking online.

Good luck with your friend.